Independence could encourage more financial companies to set up their headquarters in Scotland, the First Minister has claimed.
The country is already a "hugely influential and important financial centre" and could be even more important in the future, Alex Salmond said.
He said the Scottish Government was working on the sector's strengths, such as its highly skilled workforce, and said this could bring "huge opportunities in the modern financial services industry".
With independence, the industry could "benefit further", he told the FT International Financial Centres Forum in Hong Kong.
"Key government functions based in Scotland, such as management of public sector assets and liabilities, and the operation of an oil fund that we propose, could in themselves present new opportunities for the financial services industry," Mr Salmond said.
"Full access to the levers of economic growth is important, taking a coordinated approach to the economy, developing the financial services sector further and attracting more headquarters functions into Scotland."
And while companies would always want a cost-effective location, Mr Salmond said they would "place an even higher premium on access to a skilled workforce, and proximity to major markets".
This leaves Scotland "in a strong position", he said. "We share a time zone, a language and a regulatory system with London, and our operating costs for key functions can be some 30% lower than the City of London. Those are among the reasons why companies such as Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan already have major support functions for their global operations in Scotland."
He added: "We will ensure that Scotland, which has been so important to the past and present of financial services, will also be a major force for the future."
But Tory finance spokesman Gavin Brown accused the First Minister of "telling one thing to the Scottish people and another to the rest of the world".
Mr Brown said: "In a bid to woo financiers in Hong Kong, Alex Salmond states as a central argument that 'we share a time zone, a language and a regulatory system with London'. He seems to have forgotten that he has a desperate desire to create a new regulatory system that would diverge from the rest of the UK over time."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article